Diani beach, Mombasa. Still rich in biodiversity, but coral reefs under constant threat from global warming

Cheetah – an endangered species. Masa Mara, Kenya

Nordeste, Brasil. Endless sugar plantations

Why do we subsidise oil with over USD 500 billion a year? Why do oil and coal business get tax breaks and state guarantees? Put all those resources on renewable energy instead.

Make no doubt about it: Las Vegas is in the desert. Without water it will disappear. Las Vegas gets its water from the Colorado river, the Ogalallah aquifer and Lake Mead. These sources are now rapidly drying out

The South West USA is drying up – and human activity causes it. Many Americans deliberately choose to ignore this fact. Nevada, Arizona are not the only states at risk. Phoenix is one of the vulnerable cities.

Lake Mead – the biggest water reservoir in the South West.Changing rainfall patterns, climate variability, high levels of evaporation, reduced snow melt runoff, and current water use patterns are putting pressure on water management resources at Lake Mead as the population depending on it for water and the Hoover Dam for electricity continues to grow.

Grand Canyon, Arizona. Getting drier.

Hoover dam. A 2008 paper in Water Resources Research states that at current usage allocation and projected climate trends, there is a 50% chance that live storage in lakes Mead and Powell will be gone by 2021, and that the reservoir could drop below minimum power pool elevation of 1,050 feet (320 m) as early as 2017 (Wikipedia).

Photos: Åke Bjørke.
You are free to copy these photos for private or educational use as long as you give credit to the photographer.
Please contact me if you want to use photos for commercial purposes or if you want to use it in a printed publication
sven.a.bjorke at uia.no